| "Born in 1792. He was engaged on the Canadian frontier during the War of 1812-15, was for many years connected with the newspaper press at Ogdensburg and Rochester, and in 1817 migrated to Detroit, and there long conducted The Gazette, in 1833 was superintendent of the lead mines west of the Mississippi; and in 1835 settled at Willow Springs, Lafayette county; register of the land office at Mineral Point, 1835-40, and for many years clerk in one of the departments at Washington, resigning in 1861. Died at Winfield Ill., Jan 19, 1871." (Reuben Gold Thwaites, Second Triennial Catalogue of the Portrait Gallery of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1892.)
"Sheldon, John P. (Oct. 20, 1792-Jan 19, 1871), newspaperman, politician, b. Rehoboth, Mass. He served in the War of 1812, worked on various newspapers in New York and Detroit, became and ardent Democrat, and for a time was deeply involved in Michigan territorial politics. In 1833 he moved to Dubuque, Iowa, under appointment as U.S. agent for the Dubuque lead-mine area, and in 1834 was appointed to the important post as register of the Mineral Point (Wis.) federal land office, and settled in nearby Willow Springs. Accused of misuse of his powers in 1836, after four years of heated controversy between his Democratic friends and Whig opponents, Sheldon was dismissed from office. In 1843 he moved to Madison, where he was one of the founders of the Wisconsin Democrat, and from 1845 to 1860 served as clerk in the U.S. Treasury Department at Washington, D.C. Returning to Wisconsin in 1860, he retired to his farm at Willow Springs." (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, 1960, p. 325.)
Portrait of the "late Hon. John P. Sheldon, cabinet size, [acquired] from his family" by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in 1872. (Report and Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for the Years 1873, 1874, 1875 and 1876, 1876, p. 19.)
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